Sam Donnellon | Phillies fans shouldn't root against Yankees

ON THE SURFACE, it seems like a good thing.

The Yankees, their manager said the other day, "can't get out of our own way."

They trail the first-place Red Sox by 9 1/2 games, they've set a major league record with 11 starting pitchers this early in the season, their bullpen makes the Phillies' relievers seem like Maytag repairmen, and they can't hit even the most mediocre of lefthanded pitching.

Wild card? There are seven American League teams with better records than the Yankees and four of them - Detroit, Cleveland, the Angels and Boston - are at least five games ahead in the standings. To catapult all of them, the

Yankees must work out as many, if not more, problems than the Phillies must.

Not only are the Yankees in grave danger of missing the postseason, they are in grave danger of playing in meaningless games in

September.

The last time that

happened was in 1992.

And we all know what happened with the Phillies in 1993.

So it's a good omen, right? The Yanks in the tank is good for baseball, even better for fans of the Phils.

Ding dong the Yanks are dead, the Yanks are dead, the Yanks are dead;

Ding dong, the wicked Yanks are dead . . .

Hold it right there, Munchkins.

You might not want a house to land on them just yet.

Because if Pat Gillick thought middle relief was overpriced last offseason, just try to outbid a Yankees team that finished far out of the hunt this offseason.

They may even throw a couple dozen million at a free-agent slugger out there - which, in turn, will be duly noted by Ryan Howard's agent.

If not for the Phillies' recent resurgence, the two teams would share identical characteristics. Yankee offense has been as uneven as its starting pitching has been, games that seemed in hand were fumbled away. The big difference, of course, is that the Phillies have Brett Myers closing out games these days, and the Yankees have only . . . Mariano Rivera?

Rivera had as many losses (three) as saves and a 6.75 earned run average. He has been every bit the horror show that Tom Gordon was before he went on the disabled list. And, like the Phillies, the rest of the bullpen has struggled mightily.

With the addition of Roger

Clemens, the Yankees will spend well over $300 million on this team by season's end, when luxury taxes and revenue sharing are tabulated. Yes, they make much of that back in television revenue and attendance that climbs over 4 million a season, but the premise that George Steinbrenner spends money to make money holds little truth these days.

When the Yankees signed

Clemens to his $18.5 million deal (prorated) on May 6, they automatically incurred an additional $7.4 million in luxury-tax penalties. At the time it seemed a pricey but purposeful move, a quick fix to bridge the 5 1/2-game gap that separated them from the first-place Red Sox, whose pitching staff was producing one quality start after another - and whose bullpen was doing the job, as well.

But with the rest of their starting pitching in disarray, and so much ground to make up on a team that seems both

solid on paper and on the field, the

Clemens investment may be a mind-boggling waste of dough, even for the Yankees. Clemens, who will turn 45 in August, could pitch as effectively as he did with Houston and still find himself playing out the string after his birthday.

And then . . . watch out. If the league thought the Yankees spent crazy before, watch what happens if this team decides to pre-spend some or all of the additional $60 million it is expected to earn from its new stadium opening in 2009, or decides to borrow a few hundred million against the estimated $1.2 billion value Forbes magazine has placed on the team.

According to Forbes, the Yankees lost as much as $25 million last season despite winning the division and reaching the playoffs. In truth, they are one of the few major league teams to claim losses these days.

No wonder the team has pushed so hard for a new stadium that will have fewer seats but three times as many luxury boxes.

And thus, put even more money in its reserves.

So be careful what you wish for, baseball fans.

Too much of a good thing might not be such a good thing. *

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donnels@phillynews.com.

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